Willie Mullins secured a 10th Goffs Thyestes Chase victory at Gowran on Thursday when Nick Rockett successfully made light of a big weight to land the prestigious €100,000 handicap.
Those putting their faith in the champion trainer at his local track made Nick Rockett a 9/2 joint favourite as jockey Paul Townend again employed the wide tactics that delivered him Thyestes glory two years before on Carefully Selected. If giving the outside to nobody gave away valuable ground it also meant Townend secured the best of the testing conditions, and that trade-off worked in the closing stages when Nick Rockett went over two lengths clear of the 22/1 outsider Velvet Elvis.
Despite the winner carrying all of 11.11 – the biggest Thyestes weight-carrying performance in over two decades – Favori De Champdou was a distant 13 lengths third, while the other joint favourite Yeah Man was fourth.
If all of it was familiar territory for trainer and jockey it was a notably emotional result in the race that “stops a county” for owner Stewart Andrew whose late wife Sadie was originally from Kilkenny.
Andrew was not alone in immediately looking forward to a potential tilt at the Aintree National in April, with some layers slashing Nick Rockett’s Liverpool odds to 16/1.
“Sadlie was a proper local lass from Goresbridge and Nick was her horse. Sadly she died in December 2022, but fortunately Willie managed to get the horse to run five days before she passed away,” the owner said. “This is such an inner feeling of consolation to me because it’s what she always wanted, and now it’s been delivered on her home turf by a fantastic trainer.”
The perfect result for Mullins followed an inauspicious start to the Thyestes where another of his team, last season’s Scottish National hero Macdermott, ducked when the tape was released and unseated his rider.
“To me today was the day – it was a tremendous performance. With a horse like him you like to think they get a chance of one big handicap during a season and what a race to win. Now we’ll probably look forward to Fairyhouse or Aintree. He’ll be entered in everything,” said Mullins.
The champion trainer quickly followed in the Beginners Chase where the odds-on favourite Quai Du Bourbon got the better of his stable companion Chapeau Du Soleil in a close finish. Another Mullins runner, Blizzard Of Oz, was third.
Earlier on the Gowran card Rocky’s Diamond belied his youth to get the better of some grizzled stayers and land the Grade Two John Mulhern Galmoy Hurdle. The five-year-old ran a major race in top-flight company at Leopardstown over Christmas and built on that with a gutsy defeat of Thedevilscoachman.
Declan Queally didn’t rule out a tilt at the Stayers crown at Cheltenham for which Rocky’s Diamond is a 16/1 shot with some firms. “He’s only five, clear-winded, great heart and stays forever – a brilliant horse. He has an entry in the Stayers’ Hurdle. He’s cool, doesn’t get overexcited so you wouldn’t rule it out. I think a better gallop would suit him, but he did well there off slow fractions,” said Queally.
“When he turned in I thought he would get swallowed up but he’s not slow either. He was a bit of a fool as a younger horse but he’s grown and he’s matured. He does things easily at home so it’s hard to know how good he’s going to be.”
Earlier on Thursday an early call was made to cancel Friday’s all-weather fixture at Dundalk due the nationwide red alert prompted by Storm Éowyn.
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